2018, Fri, Mar 16

Rethinking Class and Class Politics Today

Class and class politics are not the same. There is a need to ask when and under what conditions class politics is effective. It cannot simply be conceived as dependent on the presence and activity of specific organizations (political parties or unions) capable of producing a particular class identity. Today, some of the most important moments in class politics are defined by the emergence of autonomous practices, which challenge and transform the organizations of the labor movement. These practices often blur the boundary between body and territory, law and violence, life and labor. New feminist mobilizations in Latin America and elsewhere, #BlackLivesMatter in the USA as well as #feesmustfall and #Rhodesmustfall in South Africa, and the struggles of migrants in, around, and across Europe, are all examples of new social movements. Each points to elements of a “civil war”-logic, between labor and capital, which infiltrates the fabric of social cooperation. At the same time, they suggest that class must be thought about in connection with race, gender, and nation, thus raising crucial questions for a rethinking of the notion of class in relation to “difference.”